I spent far too much time over the weekend browsing clips from The Price Is Right in an attempt to find a worthy post to honor Bob Barker’s retirement. (There’s a whole army of people who like to post TPIR clips). I actually do want to keep up with this daily video post, even though I’m come to decide that the name is pretty stupid. So I’ll post two Bob Barker clips to make up for getting behind.
The first one is from Bob’s primetime send-off from May, in which Adam Sandler makes a surprise appearance. I’m not an Adam Sandler fan, and I didn’t even find his “Ode to Bob Barker” particularly funny, but I think Adam Sandler showing up symbolizes how Barker has appealed to every generation. (I am one of the very few people, I think, who actually liked “Punch-Drunk Love”).
I don’t want to regurgitate my vitriol related to the Duke Lacrosse saga. Mike Nifong is out. Finally. Good. But, personally, the whole saga reflects far more poorly on Duke than it is does on Nifong or the Durham Police or the City of Durham. I’ve already said too much…do some in-site searching to find out whatever it is I wrote about the case over the past year.
..if only they’d make one for me at the times I’ve chosen to check them out.
A few months ago, I went there with a group during dinner time. We weren’t aware that sandwiches and “bar food” were not available during dinner hours, just $20 soups and other assorted finer fare. We headed to Alivia’s “sister”-restaurant Federal.
Today, a friend and I decided to give Alivia’s a try for lunch. Alas, only the brunch menu is available between 10 and 3 on weekends. I suppose I could’ve gotten an oyster po’ boy; my friend got it, and it looked good. I could’ve gotten some challah french toast; that probably would’ve been good. The burger sounded good, but I won’t be eating burgers anymore (more on that some other time). I do love smoked salmon, so I ordered that.
Smoked salmon…with capers, pickled red onions, some sort of pickled peppers, some sort of fraiche…oh, heck, I’ll check their online brunch menu. (See, I’m being critical, but I’m actually giving free advertising to you guys at Alivia’s). Tarragon Creme Fraiche. (I don’t feel like figuring out how to make accent marks, simpleminded American that I am). And toast points. (toastie points for Toastie! Yes, very amusing, I know). So the toast points are these tiny bland crackers. Maybe a more sophisticated patron would know that. I was imagining toasted pita wedges.
Anyway, the only thing I liked was the smoked salmon, but that’s not a food you eat by itself. It needs some friggin’ cream cheese and maybe a bagel. I was clearly at the wrong place for that, though. (I could stop by for breakfast and get that, I suppose).
So Alivia’s is what it is. It’s frou-frou food for those who like frou-frou food. And I just don’t appreciate frou-frou food. I prefer the nachos at Federal.
So I don’t blame Alivia’s for the food I didn’t like. I blame for waiting five minutes to get a table when they weren’t busy. I blame theme for having an unfriendly hostess who seemed to intonate in her “we’re only serving brunch” introduction that two guys wearing t-shirts wouldn’t appreciate their fine frou-frou bunch. (Maybe she was right, but it was still rude). I blame them for inadequate service once we were seated.
So will I return a third time to try a sandwich during whatever times of the day and week they actually serve sandwiches?
Yeah, I will. And may even come back a fourth time for dinner, because some of the frou-frou stuff really does sound good…
All I ask of the folks at Alivia’s is that they actually treat me as a valued patron. If your goal is to be as pretentious as those places around Five Points in Raleigh, I might come back a third or fourth time to try the food, but there probably won’t be a fifth.
Sticking with game show clips…notice the stylin’ Alex Trebek all ‘froed out, the $1300 VTR (record up to 6 hours of your favorite shows), and familiar sound effects that were seemingly shared amongst all the game shows of the time.
I just updated my “50+ Views” Flickr set, which now has 51 photos. Without making any concerted attempt to present my life in pictures, the “50+” set is a somewhat diverse set (if you discount the fact that 80% of the photos are of my pets).
Kudos to Fox News, because they (Your World with Neil Cavuto) gave venerable Dan Rather eight minutes to elaborate on how he feels about the state of televisions news. Rather had been hammered by CBS honcho Les Moonves for saying that CBS had “tarted up” the Evening News. Rather makes the point several times that his comment had nothing to do with Katie Couric’s gender. This gives me the chance to dig up a draft entry I wrote up a few weeks ago, which I was intending to title “CBS Evening Snooze with Katie Couric”. But I had decided that no one cares about the state of the CBS Evening News. I’ll stick that in here after the video clip. And, yes, I’m well aware of the irony of Fox News airing a discussion of how the line between news and entertainment has been blurred; but give them credit where credit is due.
…
(from the Friday before Memorial Day)
Hmm…I’ll check out the evening news, one of the network news shows, maybe the one with Katie Couric that’s getting such lousy ratings.
Lead story: (paraphrasing) “Word that there’s a vehicle that could save countless American lives in Iraq” (MRAPs)
Gee, sounds like this is breaking news. Too bad I heard about this on NPR a few months ago.
6:37 “And they’re off!” Katie says to introduce Memorial Day travel
WHO THE %&#^ CARES?
Interviewing a guy from the FAA to explain who it might be cheaper to fly than to drive. What a waste.
Couldn’t they just recycle this story from Christmas? Or Thanksgiving? Or Memorial Day 2006? 2003?
6:40 “Pain at the Pump”
Middle-America woman trades in SUV fro Crossover vehicle. Ooh! SUV sales have dropped 17% from 2004 to 2007. Compact cars up 12%. My reaction: that’s it? That’s it? It should be 50%.
The cost of milk is going up! oh no! “…there’s no escaping…the pain…at the pump. Byron Pitts reporting…”
Geez, what a clever wrapper for your report.
I can’t stand it any longer. To think that anyone might use the evening news broadcast as their primary source of information is appalling.
